The Vélez-Málaga Tram ( es, Tranvía de Vélez-Málaga) was operating between October 2006 and June 2012 connecting the Spanish town

Vélez-Málaga Vélez-Málaga () is a municipality and the capital of the Axarquía comarca in the province of Málaga, in the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the most important city in the comarca. Locally it is referred to as Vélez. Vélez ...

with the coastal town

Torre del Mar Torre del Mar is a locality on the southern coast of Spain, part of the municipality of Vélez-Málaga, Axarquía, located in the province of Málaga. It is a popular summer tourist resort for Spanish people. History There is archaeological e ...

. It is the first modern low-floor tramway system service that has been taken out of service.

History

Construction began in 2003, with the service opening on 11 October 2006. The tram line was not connected through to the city center of Vélez-Málaga – passengers had to switch in the outskirts to a bus line. At the same time, the direct bus service from Torre del Mar to the city center of Vélez-Málaga was kept. As a consequence, the ridership fell from 890,000 passengers in 2007 to 676,000 in 2011. Construction on an extension of (from the northern terminus, Parque Jurado Lorca station, to Esplanada de la Estaciónto in the Vélez-Málaga city center) began during 2008, but upon its completion the tram operator took its chance to ask for a higher support from the city treasury for the operational costs of the system. The city officials declined, and so the extension was never put into service – and with the elections in 2011 the Partido Popular came into power which chose to decline paying for the costs of the tramway system. Closure of the system was achieved on 4 June 2012 with an initially temporary shutdown of the tram line. The line has not operated since June 2012. There are plans and a €2m budget to reactivate the line, plans to extend the service west along the coast to

Rincón de la Victoria Rincón de la Victoria () is a municipality in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is the municipality with the highest well-being in the province of Malaga, according to the Synthetic Indicator ...

where it would connect to the future Line 3 of the

Málaga Metro The Málaga Metro ( es, Metro de Málaga) is a semi-metro network in Málaga, Spain. It was proposed during the 1990s to ease the crippling congestion when the Ministry of Public Works and Transport commissioned a study in 2001 into the feasibi ...

and will follow the route of the old N-340 road.

Rolling stock

Services on the line were operated by three CAF Urbos 2 trams. These were leased for use on the

Inner West Light Rail The Inner West Light Rail is a light rail line in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, running from Central railway station through the Inner West to Dulwich Hill and serving 23 stops. It is the original line of the Sydney light rail network ...

line in Sydney, Australia entering service in March 2014. Following the introduction of new CAF Urbos 3s, they were withdrawn from service in July 2015 and returned to Spain. For the reopening of the line in 2017 the Vélez-Málaga town hall considered buying smaller models.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velez-Malaga Tram Tram transport in Spain Railway services introduced in 2006 Railway services discontinued in 2012

Cancelled projects in Spain 2006 establishments in Spain 2012 disestablishments in Spain